Here we go again.......

[MamaPish]

I have moved all my angels out of my big tank, and put my guppies in the big tank....I am waiting for the tank to go through its "mini cycle" or whatever it is doing......(nitrites and nitrates still haven't changed.)

Well, I notice last night, one of the guppies has a white patch on its back......kinda looked like what I treated my angels for2-3 weeks ago...I also noticed another one bumping against a rock and scratching on the gravel.

Iwent through 2 treatments of maracyn, and one treatment of maracyn 2....... when my angels had it.

I also have left 5 corys in the large tank.....the guppies are basicly just breeder guppies, not going to bother me if they don't make it...am I going to have to drop another $50 on meds to get rid of this stuff......again??

Just for it to return 2 weeks later.......and have to go through another "Mini cycle"

I am so done with this mess.......what is the easiest way to get over this......toss it in the back yard?

 

[MamaPish]

fish with white patch is gone.....hopefully that will help.

pH is still very low....6.4 and ammonia off the charts...mine reads up to 7.0
Nitrites, nitrates still normal

If all the fish are taken out of this tank....will I still have to medicate...or can I jack up the heat, add salt....and kill off whatever it is?

 

[LesGerber]

Mama, First off there are some here that will say not to do small partial water changes but if your AM is that high you need to do small ones.......Id say try a 10% and test the next day. You say that that your nitrItes and NitrAtes are normal. Do you mean they are both at zero?
I will go as far to say that if they are both at zero and you ammonia is at 7 then you are going through a full cycle. If you have some NitrItes but no NitrAtes then you are on your way to getting it normal.
I would recomend getting getting some Stress Zyme. It is made by the same people as Stress Coat and I have used it several times and it works great for me. It is the good bateria that you can add to assist your tank in getting it cycled.
As far as the Ich goes, if you clear the tank out and raise the temp to around 84-86 you will get it cleared up with in a couple of weeks. The thing about ICH is when it falls off the fish it drops to the bottom and basically hatches and then looks for another host (you fish) So with that in mind if there are no fish there then they wont have a place to get a free meal and then they wont be able to reproduce. Salt will do nothing to the ICH, the idea of usng salt is that it is supposed to help the fish out and reduses stress on them. I have used it before but you do have to be careful when using it as some fish really dont like it.
I dont know much about bumping your Ph as I am always around 7.4 to 7.6 in my tank as thats the way it comes from the tap. Maybe one of the other members can sound off on raising the Ph
If you would please do another reading and post all the numbers so we can all get an idea of where you tank is setting.

HTH


Les

 

[MamaPish]

Nobody wants to touch this with a ten foot fishing pole huh!

I got my 29 gal up and running today....doing a fishless cycle...good choice wouldn't you say!

Has anyone heard of the new product out by fritz...to help cycle tanks?
I hear it only takes 5 days to cycle a new tank with it.

 

[catman]

There are loads of products out there to help cycle a tank, the one i use is bio start. Add this, add some food each day and just monitor the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings! I would also do this on your troublesome tanks rather than try and complete the cycle with fish in it!

Good luck!

 

[fishme2death]

I wont be able to help much with you problem tank, but the new one I may be able to throw some good hints. I did a fishless cycle on my large 4 foot tank. I added enough ammonia to get at least a 5.0 ammonia reading. I let that rock and did nothing to the water except make sure I kept the 5.0 reading until I had a nitrite spike. I then did a water change of about 15 gal of water to lower the ammonia to kick the bacteria in gear as it hates too much ammonia and cant thrive with it. Keeping the water temperature about 85 degrees and airating it also helps. When the nitrites peak its time to stop the ammonia. After about 14 days, the nitrite lowered to almost 0. At that time I finally got readings on Nitrate and knew the tank was almost finished. One more day did the trick. All readings went to zero and I added my fish right away. The biological load that I produced from this was more than enough for the requirement of the tank. I have not had any ups and downs on Ammonia, Nitrite or Nitrate. Amazingly enough I have no nitrates at all that show up on any test and have had to add this to my tank for the plants.

I might have helped with your problem tank without knowing it I hope you dont give up as I know you have been fighting this problem for awhile. I empathsize with you. I too have been frustrated. as you have those beautiful Angelfish

 

[sgtbirch]

OK Mamapish
first of all with scratching and eratic swimming I use Maracide it cost under 5 buck and treats 30 gallons for more than ten days but only five is required so you get two treatments. Your fish will keep getting sick while in this water the ammonia is tearing apart thier immune system. Anything you wanna keep better not be in this tank. ( I thought I had mentioned this last time but possibly I forgot). With no changes in nitrate or nitrite. You are NOT experienceing a mini cycle. You are experienceing a full blown cycle You cleaned away all the beneficial bacteria. Its now a waiting game and once your cycle is done all this mess will be over I promise as long as you dont ever clean too much stuff. I personally only clean decor and about 1/3 the gravel every water change. I am having a mini cycle myself right now cause I had planaria in my tank and in order to starve them and kill them I cleaned the tank(I didnt mean to kill ALL the bacteria) but I must of taken too much. I too am nervous I check my nitrites 2-3 times daily and am doing water changes everyother day. HTH

steve